Lordie, This Must Be Heaven

I have been baking bread every day for some time now.  I love the fresh bread and the lovely aroma hanging in the air.  When I come in my door it is the first thing to greet me.  

I have lately tried my hand at sourdough bread.  I have a starter going now and have baked with it a few times.  The texture is quite different as well as the flavor.  Nevertheless it is delicious.  I have all kinds of goodies planned to bake soon.  One night Brandon, one of my grandsons, and I stayed up most of the night doing the once a month cooking thing.  We had a blast and he has helped me plan what we will bake next.

Now that I am back into the bread making, I am going to try homemade hot pockets, chocolate rolls, cinnamon rolls (which I made often when my children were home) and all sorts of good things to eat!  Now that I am retired and with much more time on my hands than I've had in a while, I am ready to do some experimenting.  So what if I do put on a few pounds....grandmas are supposed to be fat!

 I have a front deck that stretches from one side of my house to the other and a tall oak that didn't suffer too much damage from the ice storm.  I am looking forward to warm weather, sitting out in the shade with a tall, ice cold glass of lemonade, a homemade pepperoni pizza hot pocket, my laptop and a grandchild and lordie, I will swear I have already died and this must be Heaven!!!   Be sweet and be good.

Freebie Craft Magazine Download

 This is the newest issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today.  It is free to download and has great instructions.  There are cards, a mini book , photo tips and others.  If you like making anything, give this a try.  If you have never done any papercrafting, this might inspire you.  It is a great craft and handmade cards are treasures.  You need very few supplies for card making and a handful of cards with matching envelopes tied with a ribbon make a lovely and much appreciated gift.  

You will find the download link on this page.  Happy crafting!     Be sweet. 

My Award From The Little Mama (Sara)

That sweet Sara, soon to be Mommy, at The Breathing Post has given me an award, the Worth Following Award.  How cool is that!?  Sara says Va Bookworm at Confessions of a Bookworm created this award and wants to see how far it will go.  We should check out Bookworm's blog.

This award is given to blogs that you would highly recommend to other readers and the rules are as follows:

Give this award to three of your favorite blogs.  Choose ones you make a point of reading as often as possible!

When you nominate them you have to write a short description of the blog (just a few sentences) and why you nominated that blog.

Link to each of your choices as well as the blog that nominated you.  Spread the love!

The hardest part is just choosing three, but here goes.

The first award winner is New Scribbles From Glynis Smy.  This is an exceptional blog with an exceptional author.  Glynis has encouraged me from day one!  She is one busy lady who writes very well on many subjects.  Great style of writing along with a great sense of humor makes this blog recommended reading for anyone. 

The second award winner is Actuate Life.  This young man is a great motivator and believes we all are capable of great things!  When I read what he has written I, too, believe we can accomplish our goals and more.  I am inspired by his writing and it becomes easy to acquire that positive attitude with his can-do approach to life. 

The third award winner is a blog I have only begun reading recently, tender graces, but I love the style and the posts are so interesting.  I feel a kinship with the author of this blog for some reason.  The posts make you feel as if you are sharing the experience and you feel right at home here.

There are so many more blogs I love, visit, read and enjoy.  It is a shame I can't list them all, but you all know I love you and value the friendships we have created.  You are all special!!

You know, guys, I have received other awards in the last month....please do not think I have disregarded them!!  I would never in a million years do that!!  I value and treasure each and every one, they are so, so special to me just to know that you think I should have an award for anything blows me away!!  I have lost a post passing them on to others, my links and everything.  I have been sick, so have sort of let things slide.  

I guess I better design an award for all of you!!  Be sweet and good!!!!

Stick Figure With a Lopsided Head

For those of us who love scrapbooking our family photos, heritage photos or just the art of scrapbooking because it is such a beautiful craft (somehow such a simple word as craft does not do justice to scrapbooking, but it's what I could come up with at this moment) the internet is an absolute virtual playground!!  What fun spending time at those sites we grow to love and, in fact, grow to depend upon, for not all of us are so fortunate or talented enough to design our own papers, frames and embellishments and somehow that special photo that begs for a fresh new idea has to wait until VOILA!  There it is!!  We have found exactly what we were looking for.  We knew it would one day appear out of nowhere, catching us by surprise, as had happened so often in the past.  I love Cen's Loft.  Not only is she a wonderful designer, she is a wonderful person as well.  You can feel it in her writing.  I ran across Penni quite by accident and was immediately hooked!  Her site is GallimaufryUK.  Her designs are breathtaking, as are her team's.  One of the girls on Penni's site has designed a printable box template  from the latest scrapbook kit.  I have already download it, along with the kit and can hardly wait to begin!  I believe I have called printables the "no fail" craft, because all you do is download it, print it, fold or whatever it calls for and, like magic, a precious little handmade will appear before your very eyes.  You have to try it if this is something you haven't done before.  Computer crafting is a big thing now.

We've come a long way, Baby!  I would love to design,  I guess I even long to design.  I  am sort of artsy and crafty and make everything, but am unable to design, so I am grateful beyond measure for the lovely people out there who are brimming with talent and gracious enough  to share with those of us, like me, who can't even draw a stick figure without a lopsided head.            Be sweet and  good.  Later!!   (I've got to go fold the box I downloaded.) 

Just click on the sites in above post to go there. 

Cream Cheese or Fairy Food

Don't you just love the yummy taste of anything made with cream cheese?! It adds such wonderful flavor to so many foods. It is smooth and creamy, perfect for desserts and dips. I think cream cheese feels right at home in any fridge, patiently waiting beside the eggs and butter
for a grandma or mom to grab it out for some fantastic dessert, knowing it won't be long till the most favored thing in the house will be whatever delightful goodie the grandma or mom can magically change it into!! Be sweet and good!

Cheesecake Coffee Cake

3 cups Bisquick
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 - 8oz. softened Philly cream cheese
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup strawberry or raspberry preserves

In a bowl, combine Bisquick, 1/4 cup white sugar, melted butter and milk. Beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Sprinkle some extra Bisquick on your counter, and then dump the dough on the counter. Knead the dough 30 times with your hands. Pat the dough evenly in the bottom and sides of an ungreased round cake pan (9" x 1.5"). Prepare the cheese filling: in a mixer, combine 1/2 cup white sugar, eggs, cream cheese, vanilla and beat all ingredients until smooth. Pour the cheese filling over the dough. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until edge is golden brown and cheese filling is set. Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes. Spread preserves over the top. Keep leftover cake refrigerated.
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Oreo Cookie Cheesecake

Crust: 1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs; 1/4 cup brown sugar; 1/3 cup melted butter; 1 tbsp. cinnamon
Batter: 4 - 8oz. packages Philly cream cheese; 2 tbsp. flour; 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup chopped Oreo cookies; 1 1/4 cups white sugar; 2 extra large eggs; 2 egg yolks; 1 tbsp. vanilla
Topping: 2 cups sour cream; 1/4 cup white sugar; 1 tbsp. vanilla; extra crushed Oreo cookies to sprinkle on the top

Using a spoon and a bowl, combine the crust ingredients above and line the bottom and sides of a 10-inch spring form pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. To make the filling mix the cream cheese, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla and heavy whipping cream together in a mixer. Fold the chopped Oreos into the filling. Remove crust from oven and pour cream cheese mixture into the baked crust. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees and bake for 50 minutes more. Remove then refrigerate. Garnish with crushed Oreo cookies.

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Blueberry Cheese Pie

1 Keebler ready-made graham cracker crust
1 - 21oz. can blueberry pie filling (or any other berry pie filling)
8oz. softened Philly cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
8oz. Cool Whip (optional)

In the mixer, add cream cheese and sugar--beat together, then add eggs and beat well. Pour this mixture into the graham cracker crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Spread pie filling on top and garnish with Cool Whip if you choose. Chill overnight before serving. Keep refrigerated.

Art of Living

Hi Guys.  I have been playing today.  I was going to post some recipes for you to try that I think are just almost too good to eat but, instead, I made this today and had to share it with you.  It is a copy of an old book page, a vintage angel picture and a scrapbook flower embellishment.  I do love making artsy things and I'm going to make some pages for my grand daughters and frame them.  I will surely get to the recipes tomorrow, (you know I always say "never do today what you can put off till tomorrow!"   Be sweet now. 

Never Too Late To Have a Happy Childhood

Is this not cute?  My daughter sent it to me in an email.  She is always sending me funny stuff.

So sorry I have not acknowledged the awards my sweet blogging buddies have given me---I feel so terrible about it!!  I have been sick and have fallen behind.  Last week I had a post almost ready to go, passing the Friendship Award to some of you, another Noblesse Oblige Award and a Kreative Blogger Award, when my screen went totally blank and lost everything I had written, all the links in the post to other blogs, etc. were just gone!  I felt like putting down my head and crying, but instead I just turned off the computer and went into the kitchen, tried to busy myself so I wouldn't think of it too much.  I so appreciate the awards I have been given and value the friendship of each of you very much.  Well, so much for that.  Now on to other things!

I made cupcakes and homemade yeast rolls today.  I got all goofy and tinted the frosting pink and scattered colored sprinkles on top.  They were pretty and so yummy.  I have the easiest and best cake recipe from an old Good Housekeeping cookbook.  I use it for cupcakes,  pineapple upside cake, marble cake and every other thing I can think of.

I have always loved to cook and made everything from scratch back in the day.  I still do a lot, though I don't cook as much as I once did.  When my kids were all home I baked every single day and always had a snack ready for them when they hit the door after school.  I did the same for my grandchildren when they were little.  We had great picnics under a big oak tree in our yard.  I loved those times as much or even more than the children.  

I can remember having a shirt that said in bold letters across the front "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."  Debye always told me, "Mama, you can't be in your second childhood, Honey, you never got out of your first!"  When my children were all home was the happiest time of my life.   Be sweet.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I hope today and all your days are good ones! Don't forget about Earth Hour 2009, when we should all turn off our lights, etc. for just one hour. It would be grand if everyone did, absolutely awesome! How quiet and how peaceful, We all could even take a walk or play a game or paint or remember this is how it used to be...........

Be sweet and good.

So Much Meaning In So Few Words

Accept everything about yourself - I mean everything.  You are you and that is the beginning and the end - no apologies, no regrets.     -    Henry Kissinger

The first step to getting what you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.   -   Ben Stein

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.   -   Brendan Gill

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.  -  Winston Churchill

We need men that can dream of things that never were.  -  John F. Kennedy

I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint - and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.  -  Oprah Winfrey

Anger is never without reason, but seldom with a good one.  -  Ben Franklin

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.     -   Ralph Waldo Emerson.  

I will leave you with that.  I have to try to get a picture of my purse in the computer for a tag.  You will know more about this later.  Boy, the hurrier I go, the behinder I get!!  Be sweet and good!!!

Why I Loved My Husband

This came from Sara of The Breathing Post. I apologize that it has taken me so long to acknowledge it. I have to tell some things I love about my husband then the fun part is nominating some friends to tell.

I lost my husband several years ago so, now, he lives in my heart. I loved the way he walked, his soft, quiet voice and the way he ran his fingers through his hair when he was deep in thought. I loved how he would say to our children, "Kids, your mama is so pretty." I loved his sense of humor and the sound of his laughter, the dark tan he got from working outside in the summer sun. I loved to hear him sing. I loved the way he could go to the river and sit for hours with a rod and reel, never caring if he caught a fish or if he didn't. It was enough for him to just sit quietly in the shade on the river bank and watch the river roll by, listening to the birds and the leaves rustling overhead. The thing I love most about him is how he loved me.

I will pass this on to the following:

Patty at Two Greyhound Town

JT at The Frugal Housewife

The Retired One at The Retirement Chronicles

That's it for now. I will be back tomorrow! I have missed you guys, so be sweet and good!